The subject matter disclosed herein relates to fuel injectors, and, more particularly, to fuel injectors for gasifiers.
A variety of combustion systems employ fuel injectors to inject a fuel into a combustion chamber. For example, an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant includes a gasifier with one or more fuel injectors. The fuel injectors supply a fuel, such as an organic feedstock, into the gasifier along with oxygen and steam to generate a syngas. In general, combustion occurs downstream from the fuel injectors. However, a flame and/or heat from combustion in close proximity to the fuel injectors can reduce the life of the fuel injectors, particularly if the fuel injectors exceed certain temperatures. For example, the fuel injector may be subject to increasingly greater temperatures toward the tip and/or other locations close to the flame. Unfortunately, the lives of fuel injectors may be reduced by such high temperatures, even when existing cooling techniques are used.